Thursday, December 18, 2008

A year ago today, our sweet baby was being admitted to Arkansas Children's Hospital for dehydration, feeding refusal, failure to thrive, and malnutrition. Little did we know that she would be diagnosed with EosinophilicEsophagitis; and exactly one year later, Ross would be in Cincinnati having an upper and lower scope for the same disease. It is amazing how things can change in the span of a year. Here are a couple of pictures from where we were last year...

Ross came through both scopes well; although, the doctor said that he was very agitated while they were trying to get the upper scope down so they had to keep sedating him. He is sleeping now and will probably be out most of the day. Apparently they gave him A LOT of medication.It will be a couple of weeks before we get the results of his scope because after Dr. K's lab read the pathology reports, his biopsies will be reviewed by Cincinnati Children's and then the doctors will discuss his future treatment options.

Pure and undefiled religion before our God andFather is this:to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keeponeself unstained by the world. -James 1:27

Our Family

Ross, Lisa, Mary Grace, Hannah, Abigail, and Jonathan

Our Little Blessings

Mary Grace

Hannah

Abigail

Jonathan

Eosinophil

is the least common of the white blood cells. They make up 2-4% of the white blood count. Children with eosinophilic disease have increased numbers of eosinophils in their blood, GI tract, and/or organs. Produced in the bone marrow, eosinophils then migrate to tissues throughout the body. When a foreign substance (an allergen or parasite, for example) enters the body, lymphocytes and neutrophils (other types of white blood cells) release certain substances to attract eosinophils which release toxic substances killing the invader.